


cherry wine

by starsplash



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Internal Conflict, Introspection, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), M/M, Mention of blood, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24929491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsplash/pseuds/starsplash
Summary: ravio and legend's relationship from ravio's eyes
Relationships: Legend/Ravio, Link/Ravio (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 93





	cherry wine

**Author's Note:**

> please please please be aware of the tags! i do not condone this kind of relationship in any way - this fic was based off of 'cherry wine' by hozier.   
> thank you to everyone for the support - i really needed it to finish this fic.   
> it's short but writer brain doesn't want something long hajgsdg

Ravio is enamoured, he thinks, with his hero.

The hero’s eyes are pale, and he loves them. He loves them, he loves how they flicker in a way that reminds him of the flame of a candle in the dark of the night. His eyes are icy and so are his words - biting and cold and sharp - but,  _ oh,  _ how he burns, brighter than any star, brighter than any fire, and Ravio feels himself blister under every touch and every remark, and he wouldn’t give it up for anything.

He would pull the stars down from the sky, if it meant people would see just how bright Link burns.

Everything about his hero is fierce, bold and passionate. Every word, every movement, it’s all hot and fast and full of something that feels a little like anger. It is searing and Ravio would not give it up for anything.

Even when he finds that he is brave, he has the courage to go out into the fray and help his hero, he is content to stay in Link’s shadow and observe from afar. He is on a tight, wavering wire over a chasm of mistakes and the only thing keeping him from falling is Link, waiting ahead of him, and he tries to catch up, but part of him doesn’t want to. 

He carries on, anyway, because he loves Link and that wouldn’t change. Despite the words and the looks and the tense air, he wouldn’t leave his hero’s side, because Link is all he has, all he lives for, and he doesn’t want to be fussed over. He doesn’t want the pity. He would walk over boiling rocks and freezing plains for Link. 

It’s all for the hero, because Ravio is Link’s, and Link is Ravio’s.

In his defense, the mistake was thoughtless and he could have done so much better, he could have avoided the swipe of the club, but his side is aching and he doesn’t regret it. He doesn’t regret it at all, because Link is safe and that is all that matters. Even when he sits outside, cheek stinging from a swing of a flat palm, he doesn’t think anything of it. He would do it all again if he could. 

He didn’t like seeing the look in Link’s eyes, though. It was incandescent, stormy, and it pulled Link’s brows together into a frown. And Ravio likes to think that it was out of annoyance, but Link is worried, and Ravio knows this. He knows this and he loves him for it, he loves him for the desperately sharp words, the concern the hero kept hidden beneath the walls he so carefully puts up every day. 

Even when he bleeds, red tracing lines down from his nose and dripping onto his chest, he knows it isn’t Link’s fault. It’s not his fault and it never will be. Ravio has learnt this and he is happy to live with it. He is happy.

He is  _ happy.  _

Ravio feels guilt pricking at his senses on one of those days where the sun is warm and Link is warmer, and he shuts his mouth at the look on Link’s face. It twists his features into a seething scowl, and he’s holding words back, Ravio can see it. The skittish brunet who Link grew so close to over the past adventure shoots Ravio a worried look, and he feels himself cringing away from it. He knows he shouldn’t have asked, he shouldn’t have mentioned anything, but Link’s expression holds a feeling Ravio is familiar with and it hurts. But it’s okay, because he loves Link and nothing can change that. 

Link tucks the flower away - a hibiscus, Ravio thinks - and leaves it at that.

It’s this point in their lives where Link is frequently away, he’s always adventuring, and he’s never home. The house is lonely; Ravio knows in his heart that there is nothing that can fill in the gap Link has left in his wake, and it makes his chest ache.

The late spring brings fumbling promises of an early monsoon, an incessant cicada trill, and long, sticky evenings that stretches the hours thin and frail; Ravio spends each of these days alone and he misses his hero, he loves him. The absence is powerful, and Ravio hates it almost as much as he had hated the look in Link’s eyes before he had left.

So when he comes home and everything is here, everything is still the same, Ravio holds Link in his arms, and he tries to let the sound of his heart drown out the hero’s cries as he weakly punches against his chest, fists closed, telling him he  _ doesn’t need him.  _

The kiss they share is bittersweet and something doesn’t sit right with Ravio, but he ignores it. It tastes better than the tang of coppery blood on his lips. 

He is Link’s, and Link is his. 

(Even if he is starting to doubt it.)

And that’s how it is - he comes home after a few months of adventuring, and Ravio pretends he doesn’t see the way Link’s companions look at him with something akin to pity - he doesn’t understand why it’s there. He doesn’t need the pity, not when he has Link right here with him, even on the days when he shouts and there’s a hard glint in those pale eyes, lips parted but the words falling on deaf ears, because Ravio doesn’t want to think about the words he says. 

_ I don’t need you. I don’t need you here, why are you still here? You’re in my way.  _

He doesn’t want to think about the way he doesn’t say  _ I love you  _ back. 

Link is fiery and his fury burns and Ravio burns with it, but the way Link  _ loves,  _ so strong and so very encompassing, it filters out Ravio’s doubts because he cannot imagine a world without  _ him.  _ Link’s love is what helps him through the freezing winters and the scorching summers and the sleepless nights, and Ravio doesn’t want to be without it. 

It’s another one of those sleepless nights that finds him curled up in bed with his hero and he can feel his fingers trailing soothing lines across his hands and he  _ inhales, _ and he lets it sink in - Link is here, Link is safe, and he is worth more than the stars and the sun and Ravio is his. He  _ exhales,  _ and the dark isn't so crushing, and he lets himself fall asleep, washed away in the tide of Link’s breaths, steady and certain. It’s a quiet mercy that he allows himself.

He wishes it could be like this every day, and every night. 

Time is viscerally cruel and it pulls Link away from him again, and again, and  _ again,  _ and Ravio watches him go. He waits, patiently, and his house is too empty. It feels fake, and the world has a haze over it that isn’t cleared away until Link returns home. It’s here where he floats, drifting through his own thoughts, and he thinks he hears his own blood pumping but he’s not sure, and he doesn’t care. His eyes are wide open on nothing and it’s all a blur. 

That is, until Link comes home for good, and it’s a spill of strawberry and ice in a world of muted colours, and he ruins the perfect peace but Ravio doesn’t care because Link is here for  _ good  _ and he never wants to have to see the hero leave again, because the sight of him here is worth remembering. 

He feels it in his heart and the overwhelming, profound way in which he  _ loves  _ is worth every second and hour and day and month he has spent, unsure of whether that love is reflected back at him. But the love Link shows is something Ravio wishes he could capture in his mind, to keep and preserve - he wonders if he can do that, take moments in time, feelings and certitudes, and keep them safe to recall later, and he dismisses it because it’s  _ Link,  _ and his gaze, his touch, they do not fade. They are as bright and burning as he is.

Ravio is Link’s, and Link is his, and he doesn’t have a doubt in his head. 


End file.
